


return home (to me)

by skatzaa



Category: Star Wars Original Trilogy
Genre: All My Faves (Not You Anakin) Live Together On Tatooine, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, CC-2224 | Cody (mentioned) - Freeform, Found Family, Gen, Luke Skywalker (Mentioned) - Freeform, Obi-Wan trains Luke and Leia, Padmé Amidala (mentioned) - Freeform, Padmé Amidala Lives, Post-Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith, Pre-Star Wars: A New Hope, Returning Home
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-12
Updated: 2020-09-12
Packaged: 2021-03-06 01:21:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 860
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25975093
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/skatzaa/pseuds/skatzaa
Summary: He feels alone and exposed without someone to watch his back as he and his eopie amble across the sands. The swaying gait is not enough to lull him, but as the domed homestead draws closer, he allows himself to relax slightly.They slow as they enter the open yard, and then a shout nearby nearly startles him out of the saddle.“Uncle Ben! You’re back!”
Relationships: CC-2224 | Cody & Obi-Wan Kenobi (Mentioned), Obi-Wan Kenobi & Beru Whitesun, Obi-Wan Kenobi & Leia Organa, Obi-Wan Kenobi & Owen Lars
Comments: 11
Kudos: 129
Collections: 2020 Obi-Wan Kenobi Gen Exchange





	return home (to me)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [wrennette](https://archiveofourown.org/users/wrennette/gifts).



He feels alone and exposed without someone to watch his back as he and his eopie amble across the sands. The swaying gait is not enough to lull him, but as the domed homestead draws closer, he allows himself to relax slightly.

They slow as they enter the open yard, and then a shout nearby nearly startles him out of the saddle.

“Uncle Ben! You’re back!”

He swings down off of the eopie in time to catch the blur heading straight for his kneecaps and hauls them up into his arms.

“Hello, little one,” Ben says, pretending to peer past the protective head covering and deep layers of grime. “And which one are you again?”

The child in his arm gasps, big eyes nearly welling up. “Uncle Ben!”

“I jest, Leia,” Ben says, quickly. The little menace is too much like  _ both _ of her parents, and is absolutely aware of the fact that she has him wrapped around her little finger. Luke does too, of course, but thus far he seems relatively unaware of the effect of his overwhelming brightness on others. “And where is your brother?”

“With Mama,” Leia says, immediately. Even at six, she knows that they all worry. “They went into town for some supplies, ‘cause Mama wasn’t sure when you’d come back. Where’s Uncle Cody?”

“Still offworld for now,” Ben says carefully. The children are smart, and know what they can and cannot tell others, but still, they are children.

Ben shifts Leia onto one hip, trying not to wince at the resulting twinge from his knee—she’s grown so much in the months he’s been gone—and lets her chatter at him as he leads the eopie to the covered paddock. While her brother might have told him about his friends and his latest attempt at convincing Owen to let him drive a speeder—Owen, because even Luke knows that he’s the most likely to cave in and agree—Leia instead details the latest news out of Anchorhead, and the water sale Beru closed out yesterday.

As he heads toward the homestead, Ben takes advantage of her pause for breath and asks, “And how is your meditation going?”

Leia makes a face that tells him  _ precisely _ how her meditation attempts had gone in his absence.

“Luke’s better than I am,” she tells him, with the faintest edge of dejection.

“And what have I told you about that?” Ben asks, stepping into the blessed coolness of the homestead and starting down the stairs. He pushes back his hood and shakes out his hair, relieved.

“Having different strengths does not mean one person is better than the other,” Leia recites. Ben waits until she adds, “And it’s not a competition.”

“Very good,” Ben says, and presses a kiss to her forehead just as they reach the atrium, then bends to let her down. He kneels and takes hold of her hands before she can leave, looks her in the eyes, and says, “You have the ability, Leia, just as your brother does. You simply prioritize different things, but that is not bad.”

She smiles at him, and shakes him off to give him as big a hug as a six-year-old can manage. 

“Love you, Uncle Ben,” she says as she draws back, and then scampers off, presumably to the room she shares with Luke.

Ben watches her go, heart so full he aches, and then stands with a groan, knees popping. He veers off toward the kitchen; on the way, he removes his cloak and hangs it on a hook next to Owen’s scuffed poncho and Leia’s miniature version.

Owen and Beru are there already, heads bowed together over an invoice and glasses of blue milk. They look up when he enters, both breaking into smiles, though Owen’s is a gentleness around his eyes while Beru’s overtakes her entire face.

“Ben,” she says, and comes around the table to push up onto her toes and kiss him on the cheek. He braces her with one hand on her back until she pulls away.

Owen joins them and slaps Ben lightly on the shoulder. He asks, “No Cody?”

Ben shakes his head, glancing back to check for eavesdropping little ears. Owen understands the motion, stepping around them to go tap the door controls closed. 

Beru leads him to the table and fusses him into a chair. They come and sit with him, waiting with quiet expectation. Ben considers his words.

“The Viceroy needed him for longer,” he says finally, and trusts them to read between the lines. Even here in their home, there were some things best left unsaid.

“Well,” Beru says, “we’re glad to have you home, at least. It will be wonderful to have Cody back too.”

Ben will never feel quite as safe alone as when Cody is beside him, but here in this warm kitchen with Beru and Owen’s solid affection brushing up against his mind, and the bright spark that is Leia somewhere nearby, he is  _ home. _

He lets Beru fuss and drinks the blue milk Owen plunks down before him, and waits for the rest of his family to return to him. 


End file.
